Dogmatic

Caught the mighty System of A Down last night at Festival Hall here in Melbourne. To say I was blown away is such a severe understatement. The band was simply astounding. Majestic is a word that sprang to mind during the blistering… BLISTERING set that had the entire gathered throng in rock n roll ecstacy. I would go as so far as to say this was one of the best gigs I’ve been to in the past 5 years or so.

Perfectly marrying their ultra gonzo moments with some beautiful, poignant and touching melodies… System of A Down is a truly unique band. They sound like no one before them and no one could quite possibly capture the sound and essence of the four musicians I saw on stage last night. The Armenian-American, Hollywood-based quartet have crafted a truly groundbreaking body of metal-flavored music, deploying melody lines straight out of their Armenian folk music heritage, composing lyrics about life, love, war and death that stand alone as rich poetry in their own rights, singing harmony parts culled from Orthodox high mass, creating tension-building soft-slow-sweet parts, then detonating them with a ferocity and glee that’s without parallel among their contemporaries. What a fuckn band!

It was also great to be back at Festival Hall for a gig. God, some of the memories I’ve had in this place at some classic 80’s gigs seeing the likes of Iron Maiden, Twisted Sister, Dio, and some lesser lights in Stryper and Poison over the course of a few years. Damn, it felt good being back at that venue!